


our separate fates (that lead to one another)

by April (featherx)



Series: but in the end I will always come back to you [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boy Band, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 15:03:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10516152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/featherx/pseuds/April
Summary: Max goes to the bar every week for a show. Junmyeon just wants to get to know their biggest fan. (Local band AU)





	

**Author's Note:**

> @MAX YOU ALREADY READ THIS BUT AO3 HAS COOLER FORMATTING THAN REGULAR DOCUMENTS SO LIKE HERE IT IS I GUESS
> 
> prompt taken from unspokenend.tumblr.com/post/158025611716/ - "You always watch our soccer/football game but you’re always alone and I wanted to talk to our number one fan," except obviously with a number of changes

“ _A blinding force that reminds me of you comes down…_ ”

Max nurses a drink at the corner table and pretends she doesn’t sigh wistfully when the members walk off the stage and the spotlight begins to shine on a different group. Chesqa has her prom to go to tonight, so she couldn’t make it to their usual hang-out. _Because she’s actually got a boy who likes her!_ Max’s mind supplies readily – but she waves it away. Not now.

Her eyes drift over to the leader of the band that had just finished. Not now, she thinks, when I know I can’t…

She tries not to grumble unintelligibly, mainly because she doesn’t need people thinking she’s insane on top of being alone. Instead, she folds her arms on the table and rests her chin on top of them, looking over as discreetly as possible towards the band members. At some point, she would be wondering, hoping, if perhaps they needed a seat, and just found a table empty except for her – walk over, ask her if they could crash, maybe? – and of course she’d say yes…

But – she takes a swig of her drink of unknown origin or ingredients. That’s not going to happen. Every week, the band performs – and every week, Max is there to watch with Chesqa, dropping donations every chance she gets. And although her heart soars every time she hears the leader’s voice, she realizes she doesn’t have a chance.

If anything, she thinks bitterly, staring up at the flashing stage, I bet he’s dating that girl up there – my God, her face looks like—

“Hey,” a voice says, “can we sit here?”

Max is all too ready to say, “Yeah, I was just leaving,” but when she looks up, her eyes are met with warm, dark brown ones, a face like an angel from heaven, smiling down hesitantly – and she feels her heart explode. “Sure, of course,” she manages, because – because, what _else_ can she say? Her throat feels tight, her mouth dry, her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth – and her brain is whirling, _is this real—_

“Thanks!” And the tallest one takes a seat, just right next to Max, and Max feels ready to _burst_. (His name’s Se-something, isn’t it? Seho? No, it’s—) Sehun sweeps his hair back, gulps down a whole glass of some sparkling liquid – Max doesn’t think she knows what breathing is. “That song’s tiring, isn’t it? I can never get the middle part right—”

“You never get things right,” the other one says. He shoots Max a thankful smile as he sits across from her, resting his arms on the chipped wooden table.

Sehun draws himself up. “Excuse me! Don’t forget I still have that blackmail video of you—”

“Oh, calm down, the both of you,” the last one sighs, sitting down next to Max, and maybe she notices the way his elbow brushes hers, just for the quickest, slightest moment before they both draw away from reflexes founded on politeness. Then he looks at Max, and gives her the most dazzling smile she’s ever seen on a person. “Thanks, by the way. Hey, you’re the… um…” He looks at a loss for words, which Max can’t blame him for. She’s utterly speechless.

(Kim… Jun… Myeon? She wants to say, just to pretend she doesn’t say that name every day, knows the pronunciation and intonation by heart—)

“I know you!” Sehun exclaims, tilting his empty glass towards Max. Out of lack of things to do, she gives him a politely confused smile. “You’re the girl who’s here every time we’ve got a show. And—you’ve got a friend with you most of the time.” His brow furrows. “I know, ‘cause Yeol doesn’t shut up about her.”

“Huh? Like—Like what, Chesqa?” Max stammers, even if she wants to say _Chanyeol_ , as in – _the_ Chanyeol, who’s disappointedly elsewhere at the moment? “And—I like this place, so—I go here a lot…”

Junmyeon looks at her oddly. For some reason, Baekhyun starts laughing and Sehun closes his mouth that had been opening for a reply. Max looks at him right back, pretending her heart isn’t hammering away at her chest, trying to find a way out so it can escape into the cold night. “Yeah, your face does look familiar,” he says, smiling, a sparkle in his eyes that Max wants to hold on to, to never let go of, because she doesn’t think she’ll ever see it again this close up. “You’re the fan who’s always watching our shows! Right? You get the center table most of the time, so we always see you two!”

“Oh, you—you know us?” Max squeaks nervously. She’s blushing, she _knows_ it. She doesn’t blush often, but when she does, it’s like a volcano. One that erupted too early. But then she decides, _if this is a dream then I’m going to live it to its fullest_ , and smiles brightly. “Well. Of course you’d notice us, huh? We’re always cheering for you guys. Your songs, your voices, your everything – seriously good.”

(She does not notice the way Kim Junmyeon’s eyes soften at the sight of her smile – nor Baekhyun’s hysterical laughter, or asthma attack, who knows. Sehun is smirking.)

“It’s always nice to have fans like you,” Junmyeon says (instead of complimenting her outfit), “and even nicer to meet them in person.” He shifts, just slightly – but that slight shift is everything for Max, when his knee touches hers, his hand nonchalantly falling to pat hers, like it couldn’t possibly mean a thing. Max ducks her gaze as politely as she can, pretending to look down at her watch when really, she’s assessing the damage Junmyeon’s just caused to her poor little heart. “Do you really come here every week? We should probably dedicate some sort of song to you for all that money…”

“Are you sure it’s about the money, Myeoni?” Baekhyun asks, after Sehun finishes splashing some water on his face to get him to snap out of that very strange laughing fit that Max had politely ignored. Or maybe it had actually been an asthma attack. Max isn’t sure. “Despite your name, we all know…”

“You don’t need to worry about the money,” Max speaks up, nonplussed, when Junmyeon seems to be in the middle of picking some choice words to tell Baekhyun. “Really, it’s nothing. I earn more than I spend here… usually. And a little cash is worth watching your priceless shows.”

“Smooth,” Sehun remarks, nodding wisely. Max shrugs, and Sehun offers her a fist-bump. Junmyeon rolls his eyes when they do, Max laughing and Sehun looking like a little kid, even when he towers over the rest of them. “Myeoni, I like her! Can we get them backstage sometime? Her and her friend?”

“Yeah, we all know who’d like that,” Baekhyun adds. He pretends to start coughing very seriously when Junmyeon threatens to smash a wine glass over his head. “I was talking about Yeol! Seriously, why are you so mean to me? I thought you were supposed to be the loving, unbiased mommy!”

“You sound ridiculous,” Junmyeon points out, but his attention diverts when Max laughs. “Sorry. They’re uncontrollable, I know, I just haven’t found the time to buy a collar and leash.” He pauses. “That sounded weird. Um, what’s your name?”

“It’s Maxine – call me Max.” She hesitates, then smiles, a little more wicked than her other ones. “I never knew that about you, mister.”

Baekhyun looks ready to throw himself out of the bar and choke to death from laughter. Sehun has whipped out his phone and is typing in what looks like a group chat that is progressively getting more and more intense. But Junmyeon only blinks, then throws his head back and laughs, even if it’s not like her joke was that funny—but Max appreciates it anyway, because she gets to listen to the band leader’s warm laughter and see the sweat glistening on his throat, pale in the low light of the bar. “Maybe we should host a Bring Your Fan to Work Day,” Junmyeon says, “just so I have an excuse to bring you – Maxine? Max?”

“Well,” Max contemplates, “any is fine.” _Max_ is what close friends call her, and she likes to think that’s what she and Junmyeon can be, or more. Possibly more. Definitely more, her heart suggests. She smiles stupidly, not really caring if everyone can see. “You’re Kim Junmyeon. Aren’t you?”

He looks very pleasantly surprised. “Well—yeah. That’s, um.” Then Junmyeon smiles shyly, and it’s _got_ to be the most adorable thing Max has ever seen in her life. “That’s the first time… anyway, it’s getting late, isn’t it?”

“Barely past nine, Myeoni,” Sehun informs.

“We should be getting back to the studio soon,” Junmyeon continues, blatantly ignoring Sehun’s smirking face. Then he looks at Max again, and his expression seems to soften even more than it already is. Could soft things get even softer? Max wonders. Maybe fluffier. “Do you have a ride home? I don’t want a girl like you to be walking out in the night alone.”

“Hm? I’ll be fine,” Max reassures, although she really _doesn’t_ have a ride home and she’s really probably going to be walking several kilometers back to her place, considering she can’t afford to use money on a taxi now. (She’d been lying about the money thing. But not too much. Just a bit. A teensy bit.) “I, ah… Well, I am walking,” she admits, after a little while of all three members looking at her, “but—I do this all the time. I’ll be alright.” No, I won’t, she thinks vaguely, but she’s so giddy she can barely bring herself to care.

The three of them share a look, before Sehun’s phone vibrates and he looks down with a little amused glance. Then he abruptly stands up, nearly upsetting the table and what drinks are still on it. “Myeoni, I’ve gotta go ahead, Tao says there’s a special sale in that bubble tea place—see you in the studio!” And before he takes off at a run, he gives Max a high-five, for apparently no reason whatsoever. She smiles bewilderedly and takes it anyway.

“How convenient, huh?” Baekhyun rises, looking smug, but still clearly holding back laughter. He finishes the rest of his drink and sets the glass on the table, saying, “I’ll go make sure they don’t spend too much on tea. And—Maxine, right? Thanks for tonight.” He smiles, shoots Junmyeon a terrible wink, and then follows Sehun’s trail, much calmer than the former.

So now it’s just Junmyeon and Max – and for some reason, Max doesn’t feel like she’s about to ascend to heaven right here and now. For some reason, she just wants to see him smile at her again another day. “Um,” Junmyeon says, “hello.”

“Hi,” Max says back. She’s smiling like an idiot again. “You don’t need to stay here or anything, you know. You can go with the rest of your band mates.”

Junmyeon gives her a strange look, as if abandoning a random fan is worse than leaving his band mates to the mercy of a Sehun high on bubble tea. Of course, it’s not like Max has ever seen that happen, but if Sehun is anything like the laughing Baekhyun, then it’s a possibility to consider. “But you’re walking home alone?”

“It’s not _that_ far from here,” Max argues, trying not to think about what her parents, her friends, and her non-existent boyfriend say about walking alone at night.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” Junmyeon offers directly. It’s so direct, even he himself seems to get caught off-guard by his own words. “Or—uh, I _am_ just some singer, er, sorry about that. I’ll, um, just leave now, thank you for—”

“No,” Max whispers, “it’s fine. I’d—like that. If it’s not a trouble.”

There’s a few seconds where it feels like it’s just them in the world – Junmyeon is looking at her like he couldn’t ask for more, and Max is probably staring at him while drooling or whatever gross turn-offs exist. Whatever Junmyeon sees, though—

(—what he sees is the girl he’s been looking at every week, on stage, trying to make his voice project just right so that the center table gets the best sound—)

—he seems to be okay with, because he smiles, stands up, and offers her his hand. “Come on, then,” he says, eyes shining. “Your house shouldn’t be too far. Maybe I’ll even visit after the show,” he adds teasingly.

“I’d have to explain a boy being in the house if my parents are there,” Max says vaguely. She takes his hand and does her best to suppress it, but her small smile still escapes. Junmyeon looks down at her, and doesn’t let go of her hand.

The night is cold, but there’s a fire in Max’s gut, and she doesn’t ever want it to go out.

**Author's Note:**

> special thanks to: C, for suggesting ideas; F, for proofreading; A & K, for helping with characters


End file.
